


Hiding

by PepperedPickles



Series: Through Time [3]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Fluff and Angst, M/M, Military Homophobia, Outing, Period-Typical Homophobia
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-04-23
Updated: 2014-04-23
Packaged: 2018-01-20 11:29:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,427
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1508870
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PepperedPickles/pseuds/PepperedPickles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Howling Commandos aren't blind. Steve and Bucky aren't as discreet as they think they are.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Hiding

**Author's Note:**

> Mild cw for being brutally shoved out of the closet, also some homophobic language  
> I took the character of Pinkerton from the comics since I heard he was supposed to be gay and I imagined he would have internalised a shitload of homophobia, and I wanted to imagine how he'd react.

Rogers and Barnes were the best of friends, everyone could agree. More than that, they were brothers. More than once, Barnes had recounted the story of how they'd met over the campfire while the Cap grinned to himself, interjecting when he got something wrong. 

"So I was just walking home, well, back to the orphanage from school one day when I see this little kid from the orphanage gettin' the snot beat out of him in an alley. Now, even at the time, he must have been half my size, whereas these jerks were a head taller than me."

"Same height. Bit smaller even."

"Shut it, punk. Anyway, I listen in to what they're saying and Steve here's saying..." he pauses and waits for his friend to fill in.

"I say, 'don't you guys have somewhere better to be?'" Steve replies, leaning back against a tree trunk.

"So I think to myself, this is my cue, I step in there, casual as you like and go 'I'll say'. Punch one of them right in the nose, he goes down cryin' for his Mama. The others scrammed pretty fast after that one! Anyway, I pick this scrawny kid up off the floor and ask him his name and he goes..."

"Oh, come on, really? 'Steve Rogers'". 

"I say my name, the full one. James Buchanan Barnes. He then replies..."

"'Bit long, ain't it?'"

"So I say to him 'you can call me Bucky'. We shook hands there and then and we've been sticking together ever since."

" _Plus chou, tu meurs_ ," Dernier muttered.

"Well, I don't know about you lot, but I'm off to bed." Dum Dum said, standing up and making his way away from the fireside.

A chorus of "g'night"s echoed around the circle. 

There was a few minutes of silence as everyone stared into the fire.

"What are you guys gonna do after the war?" Gabe asked, poking at the embers with a stick.

"Take over the vineyard of my father," Dernier immediately replied.

"I don't know, back to what's left of the family estate for me, I suppose," Pinkerton added.

"That's all very well for those who have families," Steve said with a sigh.

"Hey, don't say that. Don't you dare." Bucky said, sounding nearly offended as he lifted his head up from his knees. " _I'm_ your family and I have been since you were a quarter of the size you are now. I always will be. Don't you dare forget that, Rogers."

There was an awkward pause.

"Why, Barnes, I do believe this is the, er, touchy-feeliest we've ever seen you be. Congratulations."

" _Comme j'ai dit, beaucoup trop chou_ ," Dernier muttered. 

"My French leaves a lot wanting... are you calling them cabbages? I do wish you'd stop speaking to yourself in your incomprehensible language." Percy Pinkerton blustered.

Dernier leaned in towards the Englishman's ear and repeated what he had just said in English. 

"Oh, yes, quite quite. Anyway, it's getting late, I'm off to bed."

After that, the rest of them trickled off to the tent one by one, leaving just Bucky and Steve.

"Any idea what Dernier was saying?" Steve asked.

"None whatsoever."

They had moved so they were sitting one beside the other, arms touching.

"It's been too long since we..."

"Yeah, I know. Not since you got yourself super-soldiered up. I wonder did the serum make other parts of you bigger too?"

Bucky was smirking now, his eyes hooded.

"Bucky, we're gonna get caught, then court-martialled, then sent to jail for the rest of our lives."

"So?" the darker haired man replied, raising an eyebrow. "Haven't even kissed you in months. I  _want_ you, Steve, so bad."

Steve turned from the fire and looked into Bucky's earnest eyes, glowing in the light of the dying fire. He leaned forwards and pressed his own lips against Bucky's plump ones. The smaller man (and he felt he would never get used to that, the fact that  _Bucky_ was  _smaller_ than he was) let out a stifled moan and opened his mouth, trailing his tongue across Steve's lips. The blond cupped the other man's jaw with his rough hands as he felt a growing sensation of warmth inside him for the first time in weeks. 

"Missed this," Bucky whispered into Steve's mouth.

"Me too," Steve replied, just holding back an honest-to-God _moan_.

The dark-haired man put his hands to Steve's shoulders and pushed him to the ground, trailing a line of kisses to his collarbone. It's been so long for both of them since they've had any physical contact beyond an arm slung over a shoulder, and an eternity since  _this_.

Every point of contact between their skin felt like an electric current was passing through, warming them from the outside in. Their limbs were tangled together and they were as close as they could get without actually having removed any of their clothes...yet.

"I love you so much," Bucky murmured.

"I love you more," Steve replied, sliding his thumb under the waistband of Bucky's trousers.

"Wanna bet?" Bucky smirked, raising an eyebrow.

"Shut up, jerk," 

With these words, Steve grabbed Bucky's hips and pushed him to the ground, bending down to kiss him before straddling his waist.

Suddenly, there came a rustling from the direction of the tent. Before either of them could react (and really, what could they even do?), Gabe emerged from the foliage.

"Oh no. No. You two- no." he said, far too loudly, despite the frantic motions both men were making at him. Before long, Dernier and Percy had entered the clearing where they had set up the fire. Bucky's stomach dropped.

Dernier just sighed.

" _C'est pas possible_ ," he said, running his hands through his hair. By this point, Steve and Bucky had climbed off one another and were in fact sitting as far away from each other as they could get, their faces surely the portrait of guilt and expecting the worst.

Another pause filled with tension, before Pinky erupted.

"I will  _not_ serve with two  _perverts_! You, Mr Rogers, should be  _ashamed_ to represent America. And Mr Barnes, how  _dare_ you corrupt your friend!"

"Pinky, I-"

Apparently, the commotion had managed to rouse even Dugan who arrived on the scene bleary-eyed. 

"What's going on?"

"Apparently, our dear  _leader_ is a fucking faggot, and is also fucking another faggot," was Gabe's cutting reply.

Steve felt sick to his stomach. If they did end up getting court-martialled, there wasn't much they could do against him- putting Captain America in prison would raise some strange questions. Bucky, on the other hand... He had put his best friend in danger because he couldn't  _control_ himself. It was  _his_ fault and Bucky was going to take the blame. Damn everything.

"Please, just don't let this get out. We're still the same people you knew-know-whatever," Bucky said, his tone nearly pleading.

"How long has this been going on?"

"Three years," Bucky said, his voice tight.

The internal turmoil was nearly visible on the Howler's faces. On one hand, they had two people they knew to be committing a crime against their country. On the other hand, there was Steve Rogers,  _Captain America_ , who had led them in and out of so many missions, and Barnes who had saved their asses with a bullet at the right place at least twice each. 

Gabe was the first to speak up.

"I won't tell any superiors. But if they ask me, I'm not lying." he said, his tone still pointed.

"I agree," Dugan said, frankly looking like he just wanted to sleep.

" _Et moi_ ,"

"I can't promise not to tell, I'm afraid. I won't go prattling. But don't  _ever_ do this in my presence."

They once again file off to bed, seemingly not eager to share the same space as Steve and Bucky any more.

"I might throw up," the darker haired man said, staring at the ground.

"Listen, Buck, I'm sorry-"

Bucky stood up in a rush. 

"My fault," he simply said and walked back towards the tent. Steve was left, staring at the embers of the fire and blaming himself for all that had gone wrong.

 

 

In time, when the war over, the Commandos would be interviewed for a book based on their time spent with Captain America. None of them mentioned that night, or the nature of Rogers and Barnes' relationship. However, on the back leaf of the book was printed: 

_In memoriam_

_Steve Rogers_

_&_

_James "Bucky" Buchanan Barnes_

_May they find in death the peace the world never gave them_

**Author's Note:**

> Plus chou, tu meurs= any cuter and I'll die  
> Comme j'ai dit, beaucoup trop chou= Like I said, much too cute  
> C'est pas possible= lit: that's not possible, usage: come ON  
> Et moi= and I


End file.
